Eye growth on platies

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platy123

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Oct 31, 2016
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2
I was on vacation and the house sitter grossly overfed the tank. :( I pulled everything out that I could immediately (plants/rock/driftwood- which all had huge mounds of decaying food) and did a 50% water change, followed by four consecutive days of 25% water changes. Well that cleaned things up a bit, but it seemed like ich might be an issue, so I treated the tank with ich-noch and acriflavine. Prior to treatment I tested the water and the values were perfect (0 ammonia/nitrite/nitrate). The instructions said take out the filter so I did, and two days later two of my four platies died. So I immediately put the filter back in and treated with bio-boost. The other two platies are still alive, but sick with a bulging-out clear growth on their eyes. When I rasied the temp in the tank, one of them suddenly started swimming more normally. It's been a couple days since then and neither is doing well.

10 gallon tank, 2 orange platies
87 degrees, Penguin bio-wheel power filter (hangs on back of tank)
water test yesterday- 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 5ppm nitrates, ph 8.1
25% water change last night

It doesn't seem to be eye cloud-the "growth" is clear.
What can I do to try to save my fish?
 
With the temp that high you may not have enough oxygen, though with the biowheel it's usually not a problem. Just make sure the water is low enough that there's a good waterfall effect happening and the surface tension is breaking. You can also add an airstone.

When medicine says to take out the filter, it means the carbon cartridge. You can replace it with a sponge in the meantime. (I have mine replaced with a sponge anyhow.)

As for the eyes, sounds like it could be popeye, which is more of a symptom than a diagnosis. It's sometimes caused by bacteria, but often it's bad water conditions or stress. Your water numbers look good, assuming the PH is always that high. So it may just be that the dirty water stressed them out and they need a bit to relax. Keeping the water clean is the best way to do that. If you don't see any ich or fungus on them, I wouldn't treat for it.
 
I haven't had a lot of experience with Popeye, but i have seen an infected fish survive the underlying ailment, but the secondary Popeye symptom will remain.
 
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